Coming off an exhilarating win at home against Tennessee to open SEC play, the Ole Miss volleyball team will take a road trip to Starkville to take on Mississippi State and to Baton Rouge for a match against LSU.
The Rebels are firing on all cylinders with a nine-game win streak since Sept. 6, Emily Stroup hitting her stride and Nicole Purcell coming off of a SEC Defensive Player of the Week honor.
The Bulldogs are hoping this season has a better fortune than last year’s when they finished with just five wins. They won just one match in conference play, a 3-2 win at home over
Auburn where they narrowly escaped with the victory. Ole Miss won their only matchup with State last year at home and have won three straight in the in-state matchup dating back to 2017.
In last year’s matchup, the Bulldogs came out firing and won the first set on the road. Ole Miss remained unperturbed, despite the fact that State managed to score 18 points or more in all four sets, keeping the match close and testing the Rebels’ determination. Now-senior outside hitter Emily Stroup had a match-high 17 kills in the match and was aided offensively by an outstanding performance by junior middle blocker Bayleigh Scott, who poured in 15 kills and four total blocks.
The Bulldogs already have more wins than they did last year thanks to a weak non-conference schedule. They currently sit at 11-3 but lost two SEC matches at Kentucky and at home against LSU in the first weekend of conference play.
They were pushed to the brink against a number of weak opponents early in the season, with narrow victories over Western Illinois, Arkansas State, North Florida and Alabama-Birmingham.
The Bulldogs even had a close loss to Stetson, a Patriot League bottom-dweller whose only other win this season came against Niagara University. Mississippi State’s litany of wins against weaker opponents should do little to disturb the confidence of a Rebels squad poised to make a run at the NCAA Tournament.
LSU had a disappointing 2018 season at 12-17 and split their season series with the Rebels. Four of the past five matchups between these two teams have gone to five sets, and this one could go down to the wire as well.
LSU is 8-5 so far this season and has faced some quality competition in the young season. The Tigers had a close match against Arizona State in a neutral-site battle, got swept by No. 6 Penn State at the Cyclone Invitational, and snuck out with a win against Iowa State in the same competition before a brutal loss to Northern Arizona on the road.
The Tigers are 2-1 in SEC play thus far with wins over Arkansas and Mississippi State. They lost at home to No. 22 Missouri on Wednesday and will be hungry to avenge that loss when they face the Rebels on Sunday.
The Rebels look to carry the momentum from last week’s win into this weekend and keep their winning streak alive before travelling to Columbia to take on Missouri on Wednesday.
